


Blood-Brimmed Curse

by havocthecat



Category: Kindred: The Embraced
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Women Being Awesome, women in charge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 19:25:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havocthecat/pseuds/havocthecat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eddie Fiori has hired an Assamite to kill the Prince of San Francisco, Caitlin Byrne.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood-Brimmed Curse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [a_q](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_q/gifts).



> My prompt was: _I would love some kind of topsy-turvy take of the main characters/connections/plots. Maybe Caitlin is the Prince of the City who has a new reporter boyfriend Julian._

With the lights out and the curtains pulled shut, there was nothing for the human eye to see by. Caitlin flicked the switch up and down, but the electricity was out in the parlor, just like it had been in the foyer. Human eyes couldn't see, but she hadn't been human in a very long time.

A heart beat in the room, too fast for any Kindred, and Caitlin heard a muffled sob. The coppery tang of blood filled the air, cold blood, stagnant in Caitlin's mouth. Only one living person, unless there was a Kindred on hand who was skilled at hiding in the shadows.

Caitlin's eyes glowed as she tossed her briefcase and purse on the floor. She shoved the curtains aside, moving in the darkness with a speed no human could match.

Sasha Byrne sat on the floor, blood covering her hands. Her pink shirt was splashed with red, and the stain on the carpet would be impossible to get out. They'd have to burn it. "I think I killed him, Aunt Caitlin. He was coming for you, but he said he'd take me instead. I had a knife, I stabbed him, but he's gone."

There was no body. Of course, there wouldn't be. Not if a Kindred had been coming for them.

"It's all right." Caitlin knelt in front of Sasha and pulled her into a hug, letting the blood soak into the pants of her thousand dollar suit. "I'm here now. I'll take care of you."

"He wasn't human." Sasha held tight to Caitlin and looked up at her. "His eyes were glowing. What was he, Aunt Caitlin? What's happening?"

"That's a very long story," murmured Caitlin. She closed her eyes. "Let's get you cleaned up first."

***

"How did that Brujah get in here?" Caitlin spat out the words. "Tell me!"

Blood hummed within her, waiting to be released. The world was shrouded in red. If only Caitlin could find a target, someone to blame for the attack on Sasha, she could let loose in a furious whirl of teeth and claws. She could abandon everything that made her Prince. She could abandon all their laws, everything that made her rule just, and kill another Kindred.

Their laws would support her. The Primogen Council, gathered at her word, would support her.

Lillie was sleek and beautiful, leaning forward in her seat with every muscle taut, either to flee from Caitlin should she snap, or to run forward and comfort her. Sonny leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled together. Her loyal childe, waiting for her. Daedalus in the light, as he so rarely was, and Cash, vibrating with fury almost the equal of Caitlin's rage. He loved Sasha; of course he would be angry at something happening to her.

"He wasn't a Brujah," said Daedalus, sombre as always. "My contacts have told me that someone in this city hired an Assamite to kill you. He must have been looking for you when he stumbled across Sasha."

It was an oblique answer, but the Nosferatu and the Assamite clans had the ability to hide in the shadows in a way that few other Kindred could managed. If anyone in this city knew what an Assamite was capable of, it would be Daedalus.

"I've got a lead on who hired him," said Sonny. He smiled, his teeth gleaming sharp in the room. "The police think they're raiding a warehouse on the docks with a kidnap victim. Unless you want this to be a less official operation?"

Sonny was her heir. She was grooming him to take the princehood in the event, however unlikely, that anything happened to her. He'd learned how to manipulate human agencies and gone on to become the power behind the police force in San Francisco.

The docks meant Brujah. This was another ploy by Eddie to try to take over her city. He had all the manipulative skills of a rock if he thought this was the way to do it.

She wasn't going to dirty her hands with him. She wanted to rip his throat out and stake him out for the sun, but she wouldn't lower herself to his level. Eddie had Stevie Ray killed that way, but Caitlin, oh, Caitlin was going to _destroy_ Eddie. She was going to strip everything from him inch by inch. She would make him grovel.

Then she'd call the entire city down to hunt him like the dog he was. It would all be within their laws, and she would be unassailable. Justice would be done.

"Try and find drugs too. Throw the human dockworkers in jail for a couple of days," snapped Caitlin. "Cash, plant some of your Gangrel friends with them overnight. Scare them out of working on the docks."

The first thing to do was to remove his power in human operations. As that dwindled, the Brujah would look to other clans for support.

"What will you be doing?" asked Lillie. Her some time friend, some time lover, Lillie never stopped caring about her.

Caitlin had almost forgiven her for orchestrating Alexandra's death. She loved Lillie, but Caitlin never _trusted_ her. That was why Caitlin hadn't returned to Lillie's side after Alexandra. That was why she was with Julian.

"I'm going to talk to Sasha." Caitlin whirled and strode out of the room. "Someone call Julian and tell him I'll be late to dinner."

***

Sasha was in her suite, of course. There were Gangrel guarding her door, more on the patio below her balcony, and still more that she couldn't see prowling the grounds as wolves.

"Are you all right?" asked Caitlin. She stood in the doorway, one hand resting on the frame. She had struggled on the way up here, but that struggle had been won. She looked as calm and concerned as any human businesswoman.

There were tears on Sasha's face as she turned to look at Caitlin, but she'd cleaned up and changed into a black shirt, one with just as low a neckline and as tight fit as before. Her blouse rested atop the hamper, still stinking of blood.

"Fine," said Sasha. She rubbed at her eyes with the heel of her palm, trying to get them dry. "I don't know what happened."

"It's complicated." Caitlin came into the room and sat down on the bed next to Sasha. "I have powerful enemies."

"Comes with having money, huh?" Sasha's laugh was strained. Her gaze darted around. "I guess I took care of him for you."

Caitlin didn't frown. She didn't move, just watched Sasha and waited. Something was wrong, something she hadn't realized when she was so angry she couldn't think - and a Ventrue's best weapon was her mind. The Assamite clan were masters of speed and shadow. Their very blood was poison. They were Kindred who had become hunters of their own kind.

An eighteen year old girl couldn't overpower an Assamite. An eighteen year old human girl couldn't wound an Assamite so badly that he needed to flee.

"I'm just relieved you're all right." Caitlin put her arm around Sasha's shoulder. Sasha clung to her, sobbing, and Caitlin let the sound wash over her.

Her hearing was sharp, sharper than most Kindred and all humans. She didn't know what was wrong, and she didn't have Lillie to help read the undercurrents of emotion. Caitlin listened to the house, to the ticking of the grandfather clock downstairs and the whirring of the furnace down below. There was no sound in the house that she didn't expect.

She kept listening. The wolves that shouldn't exist prowled outside. The Gangrel in their human form prowled the hallway. Cash paced one floor below, his footsteps scuffing on the wooden flooring.

There.

It was a faint heartbeat, slow and almost gone, and a whisper of air. Caitlin almost hadn't heard it, not with Sasha next to her, still crying. Someone was in the closet. Someone was _dying_ in the closet.

Seeing as how this was Sasha's room, there was only one conclusion Caitlin could come to. Her eyes blazed with fury and she held the Assamite to her. Whoever he was, he dropped the pretense as soon as Caitlin's arms tightened.

He was a small man, slight of stature but with wiry strength, and his hair was nut brown, like Sasha's. He struggled, but his arms were pinned. Caitlin's instant of warning was all the advantage she needed to avoid the thrust of the needle-thin dagger in the Assamite's hand.

It scratched her. Where her skin was broken, the wound burned. The Assamites moved in a blur of speed, but the Ventrue were kings. They were a clan of juggernauts, and what would bring down lesser Kindred wouldn't even slow a Ventrue of Caitlin's age.

Caitlin darted for his throat, closing her teeth on his artery. She drank, while her Gangrel looked for outside threats. She held the Assamite to her as he grew weaker, and, when even his blood was gone, she drank everything that he was.

A swirl of ash drifted in the air when Caitlin was finished. She ran to the closet and tore the door open. Only then, too late, did Cash run into the room.

Sasha lay on the floor. Her skin was paper white and there was a smear of blood on her throat. There were bite marks, ragged gashes from where the Assamite had fed before hiding her away, and bruises on her side, where her shirt had ridden up during the struggle.

Cash cried out, howling with rage, but Caitlin shoved him back when he tried to shove past her. "That bastard, he killed--"

"Shut up and check to make your staff hasn't been infiltrated by another one," snapped Caitlin. She gathered Sasha - her last human descendant - up into her arms.

There was one chance to save her. She'd been drained of blood already. Caitlin bit at her wrist, then held it to Sasha's mouth. The skin was torn, but blood welled up. It didn't have to be elegant; it just had to _work_.

"Drink," murmured Caitlin. Sasha had struggled to hold onto life this long. She had to drink. She had to hold on. Even one mouthful of blood would do it.

Caitlin tilted Sasha's head back, enough to let the blood drip down her throat. Her breath was a thread, her heart struggled to beat. Cash hadn't left, and Caitlin didn't have the heart to make him. He'd do as he was told once Sasha was safe, if she was.

It was just a twitch. Her hands fluttered.

Caitlin met Cash's gaze. Both of them were full of desperate hope.

Sasha drank, Caitlin felt the movement of her throat. It enough, just enough, and Sasha's eyes flew open. She pushed at Caitlin's hand and scooted back, looking terrified. "What's going on?"

"Go and make sure we're safe, Cash," said Caitlin. Her voice was gentle now. Sonny needed Cash and his Gangrel for this operation to work, and she needed Cash to be functional. She needed them to help her break Eddie. "There'll be time to talk to Sasha after. When there's no risk."

Sasha wiped at her mouth, then stared, first at Cash leaving, then at the blood on her hand. "Aunt Caitlin, _what's happening?_ I feel weird."

"Come on," said Caitlin. She stood and offered Sasha a hand up. "I have a lot to explain to you."


End file.
